Angelique Kerber, of Germany, poses with the WTA No. 1 trophy after winning the women’s single final at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, in NY.
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At 4-4, Kerber kept her calm and ended a spectacular run with a love game.
Furthermore, before NY, the world No. 11 had never progressed beyond the third round of a Grand Slam tournament in 17 attempts.
Women’s tennis has a new world No.1 – Angelique Kerber – and she marked the milestone in style with a thrilling three-set win, 6-3 4-6 6-4, over Karolina Pliskova in the US Open final.
Never a Grand Slam finalist before 2016, the German beat Williams for the Australian Open title in January, then lost to her in the Wimbledon final in July.
“This year everything came together”.
Thus, menacingly therefore, Pliskova offered herself a major force to stop the German invasion.
Kerber won the first set 6-3, before losing the second 4-6.
“It didn’t look good”, Beltz said about the deficit.
“But in the end, I was always practising and working hard to be number one, now I can also take the next step and try to stay there as long as I can”. “Because. if she sees she still has a chance, she’s grabbing it and she goes for it”.
Kerber, the Olympic silver medallist at the Rio 2016 Olympics, knew she would rise to number one in the rankings when 10th seed Pliskova shocked USA star Serena Williams in the last four. Pliskova broke Kerber in the 7th game with a wonderful volley victor and rallied her way back into the match.
“Even though I couldn’t get the win, I’m still happy with the way I played the last three weeks”.
Kerber’s final round was a nail-biting 3-3 deciding set. She was always my idol and I told her that so many times.
Pliskova committed 17 unforced errors alone in that first set. “You have to go with a lot of patience”, she said.
But Pliskova hung in there. She quickly rose in the rankings and finally surpassed Serena Williams for the top spot.
Kerber recovered from a break down in the third set, pouncing on her wilting opponent with two breaks in the third set to end a compelling, high-quality battle of attrition that stretched for two hours and seven minutes.
Now it was a match, filled with terrific points, tense moments and plenty of emotion.
In the second set, I found some power, Pliskova said. Kerber got broken early in the third and bounced her racket off the court. No. 3 Stan Wawrinka; Women’s Doubles Final: No. 1 Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic vs.
But this was Kerber’s turn to show some mettle, breaking back to 3-3 and then once again to seal the victory. “I think I’m ready to have this pressure on my shoulder”, she said.
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“I don’t think Serena is going anywhere”, said US Fed Cup captain Mary Joe Fernandez.
